Your employees are your business’ greatest asset – without skilled, committed, and bonded staff your company will never achieve its full potential.

Incentives are one of the many ways that you can get the most from your employees and there are lots of rewards you can offer to your staff.

From performance-related bonuses to team-bonding sessions, I’ve listed some great employee incentives your company can use to improve its performance.

All you need to do is decide which one(s) best meet the unique needs of your company.

Using performance-related personal bonuses

Anyone who’s worked in sales understands the value of performance-related bonuses – you earn a commission for each sale you make.

The benefit to employees is pretty straightforward: the more business you win the more money you get paid at the end of the week or money. And who could argue with a boost to their salary?

But it’s not only employees that benefit from performance-related bonuses.

By incentivizing your staff to do more business, you increase the chances of your company making more revenue, making it bigger and more successful.

One thing to keep in mind with performance-related bonuses is that you must make sure your employees aren’t encouraged to make bad sales. This can affect the reputation of your business and could lead to fines from your regulator(s).

Another point is that these bonuses need to be achievable. Why? Because if they aren’t then it will de-incentivize your employees, meaning that they have the opposite effect that you want them to.

Offering your employees a company car

Few things are better at telling a complete stranger that you’re valued by your company than having a company car – it’s a recognition of your status that follows you on every journey, an advertisement of your skills on four wheels.

I’ve hinted at how offering a company car benefits your staff but I’ll spell it out for you – it’s a status symbol, one that makes them feel more valued, inspires loyalty to your company, and boosts your business performance as a result.

And it’s not only your staff that can do well from company cars.

You can claim 100% first-year allowances on any low-emission cars (those below 50gm/km), giving your business a tax benefit. You can also combine them with fuel cards to make it easier for your staff to refill their cars and simple for you to monitor when they’re driving them.

A key thing to remember with company cars is that you need to make your employees aware of the things they’ll need to pay for – like insurance.

Another detail is that if you do want to monitor your employees by giving them fuel cards then you need one with the right supporting software. By using a fuel-card aggregator like iCompario.com, you can put in the details that matter to your company and get the right software for your business.

Take your staff on team dinner/days/nights out

Are you the sort of person who turns their nose up a free dinner, day out, or drink? Nope.

The same is true for your employees.

This means that one of the simplest ways you can incentivize them is to give treat them to one of these collective rewards.

The immediate benefit to your employess is that they get a day or night out. However, the long-term benefit is that they work together with their colleagues to earn the reward, then bond with them while they share in its spoils.

Of course, the upshot of this is that your business has a better working culture and a stronger team spirit. And why does this matter? Because without a strong team behind it, your business won’t achieve its full earning potential.

Just remember that you need to pick an activity that your employees actually want to do – they simply won’t work together to earn the reward if they don’t see the value of it.

So, carry out an employee survey and find out what (within budget) your employees want to do. You can try out the employee time clock from Deputy for conducting the employee survey regarding their progress, performance, and other relevant fields. This carries the added bonus of making them feel like they’re involved in the process, and that they (to an extent) get to pick their rewards.

 

Recommended reading: WHAT IMPACT WILL THE CORONAVIRUS HAVE ON BUSINESSES?

These are just three of the great ways employee incentives your business can use – you could also try a profit-sharing scheme, an educational program that allows your staff to get qualifications that improve their skillset, or have an employee of the month.

Ultimately, you need to decide what KPIs you have for your employees and then match the incentives you offer to these – do you value individual success, a strong team culture, or skilled workers?

Adopting this approach will ensure that your employees are motivated, loyal, and an even greater asset to your business than they already are.